This invention pertains generally to water craft and, more particularly, to a high performance sailing craft.
For high performance, a small sailing craft should generally have as little wetted hull area and as much sail area as possible. The hull area must be sufficient to support the craft, and the maximum sail area is limited by forces which can be controlled by the weight of a sailor.
Windsurfers, with non-rigid mast connections toward the front of their hulls, are very fast and fun to sail because they have small hulls and large sail forces. However, they are also very tiring because the sailor himself is the connection between the sail and the hull, and he must continuously endure forces such as the heel torque, the drive torque and the main sheet forces.
Small sailboats which have a rigid forward mast can also attain good sailing speeds, but in order to transfer the mast forces, the hull must be have substantial depth and stiffness. Such sailboats are larger than windsurfers and are more difficult to store, set up and transport.
It is in general an object of the invention to provide a new and improved sailing craft.
Another object of the invention is to provide a sailing craft of the above character which overcomes the limitations and disadvantages of the prior art and is capable of high performance sailing.
These and other objects are achieved in accordance with the invention by providing a sailing craft which has a hull, a seat disposed toward the rear of the hull and largely outboard of the hull, a mast affixed directly to the seat so that heeling forces applied to the mast are counterbalanced by the weight of a sailor primarily through the seat and not through the hull, a rotatably mounted stay extending between the top of the mast and a forward portion of the hull, a boom affixed to the stay, a sail mounted on the stay, and a rigid control rod connected to the boom for swinging the sail about the axis of the stay.